I don't need to walk around in circles

Mike doughty is singing on a stage about a block away; the sun has gone down and a man with a frozen drink in a coconut monkey head just asked me if he could take one of the knitimals with him to dance with if "he sings that soul coughing song about shortcuts".

I'm guessing he meant this one (shortcuts= circles?), but it doesn't matter anyway because his wife, possibly annoyed by the monkey head drink or perhaps the lack of interior monologue filter it had provided him with, dragged him away before I could answer.

Shame too.
I wouldve loved a picture of that weirdness.
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Artscape day 2: new knitimals!

Also entitled: almost all of the knitimals went home with new families and I'm sewing frantically to refill my booth.

Come on by and check out the newbies!
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End of day 1!

Well, I will have much more thorough report at the end of all this, complete with pictures and dialogue transcripts, but for now i'll say day 1 was a good 1.
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Favorite artscape quote so far...

There will definitely be more, but so far...
Guy with a beer: "so you must smoke a lot of pot and then knit it up"
Me: "um, well the second part"
GWAB: "yeah, knitting"

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Where its at!

Well it took me about, oh 12 hrs, to set up, but its done now and ready for action! So come visit me. Booth #163, on Mt royal avenue, across from corpus Christi church, in front of the fox building (the north end of the festival, closer to north ave). See you soon! Xo, danamarie
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Sleepy artscape morning

I was up at 4:30 for our little news spot. I tape it on our archaic VCR, but I understand there's a chance of getting a digital version, so i'll let you know. The spot aired live on Baltimore Fox channel 45. Jen spoke for all of us, cause we chickened out; and the feature was predominantly sweeping shots of our work.

Now its just after 7 and I'm enjoying the calm quiet of sleepy morning at artscape. I have 5 hours to finish setting up, which is good because it took me 2 hours to hang the banner yesterday.

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great press for greenstarstudio!!!

a big thank you to christy zuccarini, whose new blog: Baltimore By Hand, has SO graciously featured greenstarstudio as part of an Artscape spotlight feature.
read all the lovin' here!

this IS the banner we are looking for!

finally!



here it is, guys... the banner we've all been waiting for. im quite happy with it (especially considering how many late nights we've spent together). it's much brighter and more playful than the old one.

*note the pile o'knitimals and knitimals-to-be in the basket to the right... yep, those need to be sewn. tonight. for tv. at 5am friday. ouch.

anyway, this is the banner to be looking for on Friday (or saturday or sunday), and i think it really embodies everything greenstarstudio is about.



especially that part.

see you at artscape!
xoxo, danamarie

wear your knitimal (heart) on your sleeve

gosh its been what?... 3 years since i last made these...4? does anyone remember? marybeth? well, for my newer friends out there (or, if you, like me, can't retain information longer than a few months, apparently), this is a very exciting time! i am proud to bring back the felted knitimal pin. i'm not sure why i stopped making them (oh, perhaps the 14, 000 other things i started doing?), BUT, they were popular and well loved and a great little grab bag addition to any festival purchase. i won't be putting them on etsy, so if you want one, be sure to drop by my booth at artscape and grab up a handful of them before they're gone (again) for the next 3 or 4 years. xo, danamarie

getting cozy: new for artscape

first some thoughts:
*When you purchase one cup of coffee (or tea) in a disposable container every day, you create about 23 lb of waste each year. -Ideal Bite

*About eighteen percent of garbage we produce is composed of disposable containers, of which hot beverage cups represent a large portion.Styrofoam cups are the worst culprits, as it never degrades. Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups every ear. Even 500 years from now, the foam coffee cup you used this morning will be sitting in a landfill somewhere. -The Recycler's Handbook

OUCH.

i DO TRY as much as possible to use a travel mug when i get coffee anywhere other than my own kitchen, but let's be honest... you don't always plan for coffee and you don't always carry a mug.

BUT, you can keep a coffee cozy in your glove box, purse, jacket pocket or desk drawer.
a disposable container every now and again is one thing... but do we really need to dispose of the little cardboard sleeve that keeps our fingertips safe?

better yet--- do we really need to look so dorky doing it? of course not!

Now you can wow your barista and start a trend with a hand felted knitimal coffee cup cozy. it may not be much, but using a cute wooly knitimal cozy instead of a piece of cardboard is just one more small thing that you can do to help the environment. Think of it this way, you'll be throwing away a lot less cardboard and you'll look smarter doing it! It's easy to tuck away and a great way to mark your cup as your own in the carpool, at office meetings, crowded cafe tables and more. Plus, instead of giving your name at the counter you can say "call me environmentally savvy and just plain cool, thank you very much!".

the original Knitimal Coffee Cozies (pictured above) are 100% wool, hand knit and hand felted and use no machines at all in their production. They feel nice and soft in your hand and hug your coffee cup nice and snug. They fit standard cafe issue paper coffee cups.



if you're looking for a slightly less "fancy" version, you could also opt for the newest coffee cozies, made from recycled felt--- still hand sewn (no machines!) but not hand knit. either way, they're better than paper waste and you can find them at artscape this weekend!

Tomorrow, get your morning coffee in style, wouldya?